July 02, 2008 04:00 am
—
&letterheadKeep costs
affordable
TO THE EDITOR: Your editorial on June 13, 2008 urging the legislature to require insurance coverage for post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, didn't quite have all the facts.
The legislature did not "fail" to put the disorder into Timothy's Law, the state's mental-health statute enacted in 2006. To the contrary, including PTSD in the list of "biologically based" conditions that would receive unlimited coverage was considered and ultimately a decision was made to keep it off the list. This doesn't mean PTSD isn't recognized as a mental-health issue and covered. It just means the coverage is not unlimited. It is a distinction that advocates of the bill gloss over, and that's disingenuous.
Small businesses are struggling to pay for health insurance coverage for their employees (if they can off it at all). Every added benefit adds to the cost of that coverage.
Recognizing that mandating coverage of mental-health services was going to increase the cost of providing health insurance, the original law included $100 million to help defray the increased costs for small businesses. It also required a study on the use and costs of the mental health services, with that study yet to be conducted.
Keeping health insurance affordable is the only way to keep New Yorker's insured. This should be the top priority of our state lawmakers - not adding to the mandates we already have.
Jeff Leland
Chair
The Employee Alliance for Affordable Health Care
Albany
&letterheadPolo match
benefit set
TO THE EDITOR: The Adirondack Polo Club will be playing the Stockade Polo Club in a Ride for Red Polo Benefit Match On July 13 in Keene.
The match is a benefit for the Go Red for Women movement of the American Heart Association, all money raised will fund research and education for women's heart disease and stroke, the number one and three killers of women in the United States.
The Ride for Red Polo Match will be played on the field next to the Bark Eater Inn just off of Route 73 in Keene. Grounds open at noon and admission is $5 per person or $15 per carload. Barbecue food, drinks and snacks will be available, catered by Town and Country Gourmet.
Family fun will include a petting zoo with llamas and donkeys, food, family polo competitions and live music provided by Gary Peacock. There will also be raffles and contests, as well as the traditional stomping of the divots during half-time.
For more information, contact Faith Osborne Long at 569-9387 or Julie Kramer at 578-3545. The polo match will be held rain or shine. Feel free to bring lawn chairs. CVPH is the presenting sponsor of Go Red for Women.
Faith osborne long
Plattsburgh Regional Director
American Heart Association
Founders Affiliate
Plattsburgh
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